


The Shirt

by crystalkei



Series: Never Have I Ever ficlets [1]
Category: Never Have I Ever (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Flirting, Post-Canon, Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26297239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalkei/pseuds/crystalkei
Summary: Devi had this shirt. It was white and had small colored polka dots or maybe they were flowers, coulda been confetti, the print wasn’t important, it was that it looked like a regular shirt but it was just a tiny bit too short. It had elastic on the bottom seam and the seam hovered just above her belly button. How she didn’t get dress coded for what was definitely a crop top, Paxton wasn’t sure.from the soft sentence starters on tumblr:"quit poking my sides, you know I'm ticklish!"
Relationships: Paxton Hall-Yoshida/Devi Vishwakumar
Series: Never Have I Ever ficlets [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1910710
Comments: 3
Kudos: 56





	The Shirt

**Author's Note:**

> okay yeah i'm just gonna start a collection for some of these because if they have to be put behind a cut on tumblr then I think it's reasonable to put it over here on ao3 too lol

Devi had this shirt. It was white and had small colored polka dots or maybe they were flowers, coulda been confetti, the print wasn’t important, it was that it looked like a regular shirt but it was just a tiny bit too short. It had elastic on the bottom seam and the seam hovered just above her belly button. How she didn’t get dress coded for what was definitely a crop top, Paxton wasn’t sure. It was probably all that time she spent asking teachers about their plants or kids or whatever she did when she sweet talked teachers. 

It was, objectively, a nice shirt and Devi looked hot in it. Like one of those “open for a surprise” tweets. Normal shirt then...ooh, a strip of skin that Paxton spent a lot of time staring at. Respectfully. While he was walking in the hallway he’d notice Devi wearing that shirt, sometimes with shorts, or jeans or a flared skirt. Today it was a flared, plaid skirt and that shirt and her hair was in a high ponytail (which was different, most days she wore it down) but really all that Paxton was looking at was that little strip of skin between the waist of her skirt and the seam of that shirt and… “Hey, can you spot me a dime?” Devi was now standing in front of him and he was not looking at her face he was looking at that strip of skin, he’d watched it all the way from the end of the hall to her standing in front of him and had to shake his head a little to remember his manners and look up at her face. She held out her hand and there were several coins in it. “See, I’m a dime short and I really need some Hot Cheetos before geometry and you’re conveniently here by the vending machines.”

Paxton smiled and rolled his eyes, but he dug into his pocket and pulled out a few coins, offering an open hand to show what he had. She took two nickels, thanked him, and walked away and he regretted not figuring out some excuse for reaching out to touch that strip of skin. 

But the universe let him have another chance because in between sixth and seventh period he bumped into Devi in the hallway. Literally bumped into her. She was in front of him and he was looking at his phone and he bumped into her back and her cute almost crop top.

“Watch where you’re-” she started to yell like he was some freshman but she stopped when she turned and saw it was him. “You alright, dude?”

“Yeah, but you’re sort of in the middle of the hall and traffic is moving, so…” he saved himself, feeling smooth, and even better, she didn’t move. She turned around to face him and folded her arms across her chest to make a point, a cocky smile on her face. He could see her friends over her shoulders shaking their heads. 

Paxton put his phone in his back pocket and put his hands on her hips, his thumbs purposely brushing that strip of skin and gently moved her to the side so he could pass. But he let his hands linger, even to the point that he looked awkward as he walked around her, not moving his hands until they were weirdly stretched on the side of him, and then his hand that was on the furthest side of her slid across her middle. She flinched, just barely, and let out a half laugh. 

"Hey, quit touching my sides, you know I'm ticklish!" Devi said. 

“I did not know you were ticklish,” he threw over his shoulder as he walked away. “But I do now and I won’t forget it.” 

After school, when Paxton was walking to his car, he saw Devi again, waving as her friends left. He couldn’t be sure what possessed him, but he saw that strip of skin and her high ponytail and he remembered her mischievous smile when they had that little standoff in the hallway earlier and he went for it. He ran up behind her and tickled her sides and whispered “Boo!” in her ear and then things went very wrong. 

Devi turned, fist up, and punched him squarely in the jaw. “Shit,” Paxton shouted, grabbing his chin and trying to keep his eyes from watering. Everyone in the courtyard was now staring at him. Several people sympathized with “ouch” and varying levels of swearing in surprise.

Devi covered her mouth, embarrassed. “Jesus Christ, I’m sorry!” 

“Where did you learn to do that?” he asked because even if he was in some pain, he was impressed. 

“I didn’t know it was you, I’m so sorry,” she said, reaching for his face. 

He let her because that was better than the strip of skin. Her hands on his face. Like if he was ranking the kinds of touches he wanted from Devi, that was pretty high up there. 

She gently held his chin, worrying her lip between her teeth. “It’s gonna bruise.”

“No shit, I don’t think I’ve ever been hit that hard.” He couldn’t help but smile because he was impressed. 

“My mom used to do those Tae Bo videos and eight year old me got a little too into it,” she explained, still holding his chin, which was totally fine with Paxton. He’d take it. “Why’d you sneak up on me like that?”

“I didn’t know you were gonna hit me.” The throbbing in his face was starting to dull.

“Why’d you do that? God, I’m sorry! If you hadn’t had tried to tickle me, fuck, are you okay?” 

She was embarrassed and her cheeks were heating and it was very cute and he wanted to make her feel a little better so maybe telling the truth was the way to go on this one, even if he’d come out looking like a jerk for staring at a strip of her bare skin all day. 

“I like that shirt,” he said, but Devi tilted her head confused at the seeming non sequitur. He cringed a little because he was about to look very stupid and maybe skeezy. “You look really hot in it and I’ve been a little fixated on this little line of skin that is bare because of the cut of the shirt.” He reached for the spot with his hand but didn’t actually touch because he wasn’t gonna rule out her hitting him again. 

Devi’s face softened, it kinda melted, like a happy pout? He wasn’t sure exactly. He’d never seen her make that face. “You think I look hot?” she asked, unsure. 

“Devi, you _are_ hot.” He frowned, but not for long because it hurt to frown now. “I thought I had clearly stated before. I compliment you all the time.”

“I thought those were _friend_ compliments.” She still hadn’t moved her hand from his chin but he was taking that as a good sign. 

“Compliments don’t really have a category classification,” he said, his stomach did a flip because it felt like something was happening. He gulped. 

“You like my shirt?” She asked and he nodded, her thumb was slowly moving back and forth under his chin. “You moved me in the hallway today because you wanted to touch my waist?” He nodded again, scrunching his face from embarrassment. But a wicked smile spread across her face. She took a step closer to him and finally moved her hand from his chin, to reach down to his wrists and put them on her waist. 

“Is that better?” she asked, her grin growing wider as he slid his fingers around her waist. She moved her hands to either side of his face and he liked where this was going. “Anything else I can do for you?” 

“You hit me in the face pretty hard, which I’m really, really impressed by, but maybe you could just kiss my face, because you hit it so hard?” 

Devi laughed and nodded. “You think I should kiss your face?” She leaned in and kissed his jaw, gently, right where she’d hit him. “You think that’s enough?”

Paxton shrugged one shoulder, his fingers moving back and forth across the smooth expanse of skin on her waist. It was better than he’d imagined.

“I think you could do it again, not to be greedy but you did hit me pretty hard.” 

Devi nodded again, her eyes bright. “Yeah, I better just, you know, one more time.” She kissed his jaw again, then his chin, then the other side of his jaw. “Anything else?” 

“People are watching so…” He tilted his head to the crowd that had gathered when she’d decked him. 

“Oh, right, I should probably…” She moved her hands to the back his neck, and finally closed the distance, kissing his lips. Paxton sighed into it. It’s possible people clapped but he was too busy focusing on Devi’s mouth and the skin at her waist to notice. Devi tasted like spearmint and her lips were sticky with lipgloss. He hooked his thumbs under the elastic of the seam of her shirt and found warmer skin there and was pretty sure he could kiss her forever.

**Author's Note:**

> as always, you can find me on tumblr at cupcakesandtv  
> if you want to see the shirt, you can find it here 
> 
> https://netflix.homeofthenutty.com/displayimage.php?album=46&pid=50438#top_display_media


End file.
